Team MMOS
by Xavian and Deathgrip
Summary: My first foray into writing fiction. A dysfunctional group of wannabe hunters and huntresses join ATLAS academy.


Wall duty. Nobody ever wanted to be the poor soul that had to stand staring at the empty expanses of the arctic tundra for hours on end. If luck was on your side you would be stationed with a friend, and you could pass the time swapping stories, and telling jokes. Often the stories told were the ones that would normally land you bad standing with the higher-ups in ATLAS. But on wall duty, no one would know that you said anything. You could tell normal stories, or have metaphysical discussion, but you could have those anytime, and on wall duty, it was hard passing the twelve hours with normal boring conversations.

Meanwhile if the fates were unkind, you would find yourself standing next to someone who you knew full well would rat you out if you so much as began to say "did you hear the one about...". Of course if they stationed you with someone who you didn't know, the result would be the same, both of you would be too suspicious of the other to even try an attempt at anything scandalous.

As such, the only options remaining to privates Matt Noir and Rouge Veridis were to have an ordinary conversation, or a metaphysical discussion.

"So" Matt began, "Ever wonder why we're here?" There was an awkward pause, followed a few seconds later by what he would guess was an exasperated sigh.

"Do you mean why were on this wall, staring at the vast expanse of nothing, or why humans even exist on Remnant in the first place?" She continued staring out at the tundra, but given the fact that the expression shown by the lower half of her face remained unchanged, she was likely not amused. Of course that could have just been the cold, it tended to leave the face muscles numb for day's after one was placed on wall duty.

"They both have the same answer, it doesn't matter.". Matt got the impression that she was annoyed. "And I don't care either, we're here because we're here, now please, I find the time passes faster when I use my time to think instead of speaking to unoriginal philosophical wannabes."

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds.

Matt cleared his throat, breaking the tense silence "I actually have a bachelor's degree in philosophy". He sounded depressed, and insulted.

Rouge laughed out loud, slowly she quieted down but she had a smile on her face when she looked at him.

"you know that was actually a pretty good..." she stopped in her tracks when she noticed how Matt was staring at her with his mouth agape.

"Oh wow She stopped as the realisation struck her. "You are being completely serious".

She then burst out laughing a second time. "Sorry" she apologised to him, despite the fact that she still had not managed to calm herself down from the laughing fit. "I just didn't re..." she continued to laugh to herself, "didn't realise that it was a real degree"

"Yes, yes it is, and I plan to get my masters degree in it after I'm finished up my mandatory military service." He gave a smug smile, "and fortunately that is a week away" he added silently.

"How did your parents react to finding out that you had chosen to study philosophy?" she asked him.

Noir let out a small chuckle "Better than you think," he commented, "Honestly they were more shocked to find out my sister had signed herself up at ATLAS academy than by the fact I had decided to take philosophy."

"Wait a second," Rouge was nearly speechless at the revelation, nearly. "You have a sister who is a huntress?" she was obviously shocked. "You stabbed yourself through the mouth with a dinner fork!"

"How does everyone in this military know about that!?" Matt yelled out loud, "that was a year ago, and yet no one seems content to just forget it ever happened. Oh and also, despite what the rumors say, I did not knock over half the tables in the cafeteria after I had stabbed myself. I didn't knock over one."

He turned from her and stared back out at the tundra, and he made sure to perform the head turn with the most passive aggressive and melodramatic motion that one possibly could, complete with a sniffle that even a five year old wouldn't have been fooled by the lack of sincerity. Then suddenly he stopped, and reached for the binoculars hung on his belt.

"Come one, everyone at ATLAS has heard the stories, and you have the scars..." She was suddenly interrupted by Matt, who spoke but three words, all of which were filled with dread.

"I see movement"

Rouge's face visibly paled, and she raised her rifle, and turned the safety off.

Matt placed the binoculars to his face, and stared out at the tundra.

"What do you see, is it Grimm? Please say that it is not Grimm." Rouge had obvious terror in her voice.

Matt stared out at the expanse of white in front of him through the binoculars, and Rouge could see him increasing the range on them to get a better view on what was approaching. Finally after a tense half-minute, he finally spoke.

"No..." he said, quietly, if Zelena hadn't been so tense, she likely wouldn't have heard him. He then dropped the binoculars, leaned forwards, and puked.

"What is it, a deathstalker?, a pack of griffons?, a nevermore?, something bigger?" She was getting more erratic by the second. "We are not prepared for this; we can take creeps, beowolves, and maybe an ursa, by not something bigger, not something bigger!"

"No, no it's not a grimm." Rouge hesitated for a second, searching for what to say.

"Not a grimm, then what, what is it?"the terror in her voice hadn't gone away, and she was left with the question of what could be so terrible, that it would cause someone to throw up.

"It's a dog." Matt began, "not a real dog, a... a robot of some kind, but that isn't it... it's that, that..." he was shaking, and he then leaned over yet again, and vomited for a second time. He kept his head there; his entire body was visibly shaking, and she could hear that he was not finished with getting this out of his system.

Slowly Zelena raised the binoculars to her face to see what had shocked her companion so much. At first she could nothing but a tiny speck on the horizon, but as she zoomed in she could she slowly made out the image more and more, and when she finally realised what she was staring she gasped.

"She's alive..." Rouge muttered quietly to herself.

As she lowered the binoculars she heard Matt lose his lunch for another time. She quickly made up her mind; she took her scroll from her pocket and turned it on, and quickly called her superior officer. The call was answered quickly.

"Private Veridis, anything to report?" the voice on the other end of the line was calm and collected, yet there was a tinge of panic to his words.

"Requesting a medical evacuation sir, we've got a robotic dog carrying a wounded girl up to the wall; she appears to be missing an arm"

Zelena could hear others in the background asking the officer about the call.

"Is this a joke?" he replied in a shocked tone.

"No sir" Rouge responded grimly, "I am being serious, sir, she appears to be missing an arm, and is covered in blood, but I cannot say whose."

"Alright, you've got your evac, just give me her ETA"

Rouge took another look at the duo through her binoculars, "I'd say about half an hour sir, the robot is moving pretty slowly, but it's difficult to measure distance visually in the tundra."

"I'll keep that in mind." He replied, and promptly hung up. 

"Serioushly, man, you're my... my best-bud".

The two kids were on a street corner, a bottle of liquor in the hands of the one on the left, and numerous other bottles lay in between them. The one on the right was dark skinned with a purple shirt, and dark pants, with hair left to grow long. The one on the left was light skinned with a red hoodie and jeans. They were staring across the street at a television in the top floor of someone's apartment, which had been left on. Both were too drunk to wonder why.

"I luve you man" the one of the right continued, "I luve... I lov you like a... a bhrother."

"I bow" the one on the left responded. "And I woulb do anyfing, for, ffor you." He said passing the bottle over to the one on the right.

"Hey... Isn't that, that, the Ironhide guy..." the one on the left muttered, staring at the television.

"Ya mean, th... the fashist dictator", the one on the right replied, having finished off the final bottle.

"Ya.. thash him."

"If I could get closh enough. I could probabbawy shot him."

"Dat woul be kool..."

"NO!, I mean it... I can probabwy get myself shent to Atlss. Then while I'm dere, I can baslt dim."

The two of them staggered to their feet, and began to walk away, "I'll get myself signed up to Atlush." The one of the right continued, "And you can be de won who observsh it." He took a swig from the bottle, and when he realised it was empty, threw it over his shoulder. "How ard ould it be? To sign up to awn Academy. I wuvs gonna go ta shade, but this is for theh freidom of de people!" He held his hand up into the air. He then vomited on the ground.

"Did I ever tell you you were life ma brother?" the one on the left asked as they hobbled away.

When she woke up, everything was dark.

She could hear sounds all around her, beeping sounds and shuffling feet, but she couldn't see anything...

"Mom!" she called out, to no reply, "Dad!" still no reply. "Amarok..." she whispered silently, "are you there?". She lowered her right hand to her thigh, were she kept her knife, but couldn't find it. Frantically she moved her hand up and down her thing searching for the weapon, but to no avail. She then placed both of her hands onto the bed and tried to push herself into a sitting position, but when she pushed on the bed she found the right side of her body lifting up, but the left remained on the bed.

Everything was still dark.

Trembling she moved right arm to the left side of her body, and found herself unable to find anything where her arm was supposed to be. No stub, no protrusion, just a flat skin. Unsure of what to do, she curled herself into a ball, remaining lying on the bed.

"Mom!" she screamed even louder, "Dad!" she called, hopping that they would come to her, they would come rescue her.

Everything remained dark.

She only stopped screaming when she remembered. She remembered the cabin, and her parents, going out like they always did to find supplies. They never returned.

She quietly sobbed to herself. She couldn't see anything, her arm was missing, her parents were probably dead, and Amarok was nowhere to be found. She continued crying even when she heard a door open up, and someone walk into the room.

"Are you O.K?" the voice asked, it seemed to belong to a woman. Marrow just ignored her, and kept on crying to herself.

"We want to help you." The woman told her. Marrow just acted as if she wasn't there at all.

She heard the woman move across the room, and, presumably, sit down. It was an hour before Marrow finally acknowledged her.

"Where am I, and why is it so dark?" She asked quietly.

"Well," the woman responded carefully. "You are in a hospital, as for how dark it is..." Marrow heard the woman take a deep breath in.

"Your left eye was missing when we found you. Your right on the other hand, was damaged, it is doubtful that you will see again."

"No, no, no." Marrow repeated, slowly moving her right hand to her face. It was now covered in a web of deep scars that hadn't been there before, and where her left eye had been, there was now nothing but an indent. Her forehead also felt... different.

"You also lost your left arm at the shoulder and your left foot at the hell, you also had a skull fracture on your forehead, no brain damage, but we repaired it with a metal plate." Marrow was still too shocked to respond, simply repeating "no" over and over and over and over.

Everything was dark.

"What is your name?" The woman asked kindly, hoping to comfort the girl.

"My mom says not to tell my name to outsiders."

 _Outsiders?_

The woman had heard all sorts of things said by children, but this was new.

"Please" she said, "we just want to help you. We just need your name so that we can hopefully contact your parents." The girl remained unresponsive.

"Actually..." the girl began, speaking between sobs "I'll tell you my name if you can give me back my knife, and Amarok."

"Well we can't actually give those back to you. They are weapons, and we don't allow weapons in the hospital."

"No knife and Amarok, no name" the girl told her bluntly, not trying to disguise the emotions in the voice. She was scarred, and a bit angry. The woman didn't know what to do. Slowly she got up, and left the room.

Another doctor was standing outside, obviously anxious to learn what had happened. The woman just shook her head, "the girl is in shock right now, I think the only thing we can do is to give her some time." The other doctor nodded his head in understanding, "another thing" she added quickly, "she said that she wasn't supposed to tell her name to outsiders, and she what appeared to be a brand on her right hand. A wolf's head." The woman sighed, "She also wants her knife back, along with something she calls Amarok. I'll bet it's that wolf that they picked up with her."

"A wolf's head?" the other doctor asked as soon as she stopped speaking, "which way was it facing?"

The woman took a second to remember, "It was a frontal view and there was a scar over its left eye."

"Oh gosh..." she muttered as the irony dawned on her.

Inside the room, everything was dark.

When he woke up, his head was pounding, and he couldn't remember a thing from the night before. He took a look around at his surroundings and realised that he was currently in a jail cell, all by himself. Staring into the cell, looking incredibly angry, was a police officer. The kid put his hand over his eyes for a second then moved it above his head, allowing him to see the figure in front of him better.

"Oh hi mom..." he muttered.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" his mother yelled at him angrily, "I'm busy investigating a murder case when all of a sudden I get a call from another precinct that my son has turned up drunk and unconscious in the middle of a known criminal establishment, yelling about how you were claiming you were going to assassinate someone called Ironhide, which I asumme to be Ironwood." His mother's voice was mixed with worry and anger, as if she couldn't decide which she was supposed to be.

"Could you speak quieter mom?" he muttered, "my head is really hurting right now."

"No I will not!" his mother yelled at him. "Just be glad the owner was in no mood to explain why a teenager was in his bar. If it had been someone who was less cautious or carring about their public reputation, you would probably have ended up dead!" Her eyes were in tears. "Dead do you hear me! Dead!"

"Where did I end up?" the kid asked.

"In Woody's bar, if you must know." His mother said angrily "did you miss everything else that I just told you?"

"Old Woody' bar is a criminal establishment?" the kid quietly commented.

His mother stared at him with a mixture of anger and worry. "You said you were going to Pluto's house! You lied to me!"

"I did go to Pluto's house... He just wasn't there." The kid justified.

"Orchid, your father and I are going to have a long talk about this when we get home."

"Fine." Orchid signed exasperatedly. His mother turned angrily to look at him.

"Oh and Shade academy had to be told about this, as you now have a criminal record." Orchid's eyes went wide. "They are having second thoughts about accepting you. No confirmation of whether it will change anything just yet."

Orchid collapsed back onto the jail bed, and stared up at the ceiling.

"Do you hear me Orchid? This is no one's fault but yours, so I hope you've learned a lesson." She paused to take a breath.

"Yes" Orchid replied "I should never go to Woody's bar again."

Zelena looked at the girl curled up on the bed. The doctors hadn't managed to get anything out of her. The girl was staying at the hospital for the time being, having to get used to losing your family, for sight, and some of your limbs meant that the doctors didn't want the girl with a foster family until she had rehabilitated. Unfortunately that was taking some time.

"Hi, I'm Zelena Noir. What's your name?" there was no response. The doctors had taken to calling her Sandy, as she had been wearing a beige jacket when she had been found; meanwhile, the girl didn't respond to the name.

No response.

"My brother wanted to know how you were doing, he was one of the soldiers who helped rescue you."

Still no response.

Matt thought that she might be able to do more than a doctor, as she was still a child, and a huntress might prove to be a role model that could help. She had pitched the idea to the doctors, who had chosen to go along. They were grasping at straws at this point. "I'm a huntress you know."

The girl didn't react. "It's true; I help people as my job."

"Could you bring Amarok back?" the girl asked hopefully, as she moved into a seated position. She didn't know what a huntress was, but if she helped people, maybe she could help her. Zelena was unsure of what to do. Amarok likely referred to the robot that had been responsible for bringing her to the wall. Unfortunately that thing was legally Atlas property, being an old prototype that had gone missing. Meanwhile the girl would likely benefit from it more than ATLAS would, as the niche the prototype had sought to fill was one ATLAS had taken care of. Taking her scroll from her pocket she began to call an old contact in ATLAS, but even if she did get the dog, she wouldn't be able to bring it to the hospital, and she doubted the girl would be able to keep it.

The girl listened as Zelena spoke to the person on the other end of the line. She talked for about fifteen minutes before moving the conversation outside.

"Alright," Zelena sighed, "thank you." And finally hung up. She came back into the room. "Alright kid, I've spoken to some people I know, I can get you your dog back." The girl's face lit up, "but there is a catch." The girl's face began to fall. "In exchange for the wolf," The girl interrupted her, "Amarok" she corrected.

"In exchange for Amarok, they want you to go to ATLAS academy. I tried to talk them out of it to no success."

"So what does that mean?" the girl asked.

"It means that they want you to become a huntress, they want you to become someone who hunts grimm for a living"

"I thought you said huntresses helped people! I can't hunt grimm!"

"Well, the grimm hunting is secondary," Zelena tried to correct herself, "but it is still an important part of being a huntresses. Fortunately, I can take care of all your..." Zelena searched for a word. "Handicaps. Prosthetics can make up for your lost limbs, and cases of blind huntresses are rare, but not non-existent. I just need your approval and everything will be fine. This isn't going to be easy, it will require an extensive amount of training." The girl was already nodding "I'm in." She said, a determined look on her face.

"Not so fast." Zelena quickly interjected, "It will be difficult training you like this, and you will need to be very determined."

"Fighting is all that I know." The girl commented, "And I owe it to Amarok to save him."

Zelena nodded grimly, and began to call the number again.

"You wanted to know my name" the girl said "it's Marrow. Marrow Garoux."

There was something about the delivery of the name that sent a chill down Zelena's spine.

Orchid's parents hadn't been happy after the drinking incident. They were even less happy when they found out that Shade academy had refused him after the little debacle. Orchid was probably more upset than they were, yet his attempts to explain that to them ended in failure.

Why were they upset, he was already being punished...

Currently he was sitting in his room, starring at the custom shotgun. He was very proud of the design, yet he had the sinking feeling that he wouldn't be using it.

Then someone knocked on his door.

"No!" Orchid said angrily, but his father opened it anyway, a letter in his hand.

"I said not to come in here!"

"Did you apply to Atlas Academy?" his father asked quizzically.

"Umm... No." The tone of voice Orchid used was the one that said _Are you an idiot?_

Meanwhile, his father was unfazed. "You just got an acceptance letter in the mail." Orchid placed War and Conflict on his bed and ran over to where his dad was standing, who paced the letter on to him.

Orchid took the letter and looked it over, and then he looked it over again.

"I think this would be good for you, it would teach you discipline." His father said as Orchid read over the letter a third time.

"I didn't sign up for Atlas..." Orchid muttered, passing his father the letter, his father cast him a curious glance before giving the letter a second look. Then he noticed something, and rolled his eyes.

"Check the date." He said, passing the letter back to his son. "What about it?" Orchid asked, prompting his father to shoot him a stern look. "It's from the night of your drunken debacle. How the hell you managed to sign yourself up to the academy drunk is anyone's guess."

"I'm not going." Orchid stated.

"Well if you want to become a hunter, you have no choice." His father turned around and closed the door behind him. Orchid looked at the letter, before crumpling it up and throwing in the trash.


End file.
